Vin Scully to return to LA Dodgers next season

LOS ANGELES 
Vin Scully said Sunday he'll return to the broadcast booth to call Los Angeles Dodgers games next year for his 62nd season because "when push came to shove, I just did not want to leave."

The 82-year-old Hall of Famer, whose nearly 61 years of service make him the longest tenured broadcaster in sports history, said he made the decision with the blessing of his wife, Sandy, and his five children.

"With continued health, we'll do next year," he said.

He has said that while he loves the job he's had with the team since 1950, when the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn, it's increasingly hard to be away from his wife of 36 years.

"My wife understood, God bless her," Scully said in the press box named for him at Dodger Stadium before a day game against the Cincinnati Reds. "She said, `You love it, do it,' and so I love it and I'm going to do it."

Scully will continue calling all Dodgers home games and road games against NL West and AL West opponents. He calls all nine innings of the team's television broadcasts, while the first three innings of his games are simulcast on the radio.

He works alone on the air and long ago reduced his travel schedule to avoid calling games east of the Rockies.

"I'm just going to try to do the best I can, certainly for next year," he said. "Please don't ask me anything about after next year. I'm lucky to look for tomorrow morning."

In March, Scully was briefly hospitalized after falling and hitting his head at home.

Scully said he is in good health and still gets excited about describing the action on the field.

"The love of the game still produces goose bumps. That might be my thermometer," he said. "Every time there's a good play, the other night when the kid at second base threw the ball to first behind his back, I had goose bumps like it was the first big league game I'd ever seen.

"I went home thinking, `Holy mackerel, it's still deep inside of me, this love for the game.' I'm so blessed."

Holding a paper cup of coffee and dressed in a creme linen jacket, navy slacks and a blue-and-white checked shirt, the fiercely private Scully told a gathering of media that he was embarrassed by the attention.

"This is the last thing that I wanted," he said. "I was hoping and I think the Dodgers were it would be a little line in the note sheet before the game and that would be the end of it."

Former Dodger and current team broadcaster Rick Monday heard the news on the radio as he was driving to the stadium.

"It was a lot like being a kid in a neighborhood and you're kicking on the door asking Vinny's wife Sandy: `Can Vinny come out and play again?'" he said. "And we're all delighted that he's going to come out and play next year. In my life, Vin Scully has always been Dodger baseball."

It's the same for generations of Angelenos for whom Scully's famously soothing voice has defined summer in the city.

"I'm as thrilled as our fans that Vin will be returning," team owner Frank McCourt said in a statement. "He is not only the greatest broadcaster of all time, but also a wonderful friend."